Seoul prunes school selection plan
Published: 04 Dec. 2009, 21:11
By Seo Ji-eun
Changes in the new system by which Seoul middle school students were to choose a high school are under fire. Reports yesterday said that the Seoul Metropolitan Education Office decided last month to assign a majority of students to schools based on where they live, virtually upturning a plan to admit students to schools they preferred.
The office sent notices about the change to middle school students on Nov. 24, three weeks before the application process was to begin on Dec. 15. The change took students and their families by surprise.
A flood of news stories triggered by parents’ complaints prompted the education office to hold an emergency news conference yesterday afternoon to explain the change. “We received countless phone calls from parents living in areas that most students prefer complaining that they are not being given priority,” Kim Young-sik, a school commissioner in charge of the school selection system, said when explaining the change. “We apologize for not making the changes public through the media in advance.”
“A simulation we ran of the application process showed that competition may be high for specific areas,” Kim said. “We intend to adjust for this in advance.”
Many parents prefer Gangnam in southern Seoul and Mokdong in western Seoul because students who graduate from high schools in those areas are believed to have better chances of gaining admission to prestigious universities.
The nation’s education authorities decided to introduce a new high school selection system from March 2010, with Seoul being the first to test it.
Under the system, students were to select schools in three stages. In the first stage, applicants choose two schools they want to attend in the city. The respective schools will allocate 20 percent of their admissions quotas to these students. Student selection will be made through a lottery.
The change addressed yesterday effectively wipes out the second stage, in which 40 percent of the students who did not get their top choice in the first stage would be able to choose schools in their educational ward, regardless of where they live. There are 12 wards in Seoul.
The education office has decided to allocate the 80 percent of students who failed to get their choices in the first stage based only on where they live. In other words, only one out of five middle school seniors in Seoul can enter the schools they want.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
Changes in the new system by which Seoul middle school students were to choose a high school are under fire. Reports yesterday said that the Seoul Metropolitan Education Office decided last month to assign a majority of students to schools based on where they live, virtually upturning a plan to admit students to schools they preferred.
The office sent notices about the change to middle school students on Nov. 24, three weeks before the application process was to begin on Dec. 15. The change took students and their families by surprise.
A flood of news stories triggered by parents’ complaints prompted the education office to hold an emergency news conference yesterday afternoon to explain the change. “We received countless phone calls from parents living in areas that most students prefer complaining that they are not being given priority,” Kim Young-sik, a school commissioner in charge of the school selection system, said when explaining the change. “We apologize for not making the changes public through the media in advance.”
“A simulation we ran of the application process showed that competition may be high for specific areas,” Kim said. “We intend to adjust for this in advance.”
Many parents prefer Gangnam in southern Seoul and Mokdong in western Seoul because students who graduate from high schools in those areas are believed to have better chances of gaining admission to prestigious universities.
The nation’s education authorities decided to introduce a new high school selection system from March 2010, with Seoul being the first to test it.
Under the system, students were to select schools in three stages. In the first stage, applicants choose two schools they want to attend in the city. The respective schools will allocate 20 percent of their admissions quotas to these students. Student selection will be made through a lottery.
The change addressed yesterday effectively wipes out the second stage, in which 40 percent of the students who did not get their top choice in the first stage would be able to choose schools in their educational ward, regardless of where they live. There are 12 wards in Seoul.
The education office has decided to allocate the 80 percent of students who failed to get their choices in the first stage based only on where they live. In other words, only one out of five middle school seniors in Seoul can enter the schools they want.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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